Political Corruption is Part and Parcel of Democracy
The Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, is reported to be weighing the option of asking the provincial sports and education minister to resign until the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) completes its investigation against him for receiving money for the party (PML-N) fund from Asim Malik, owner of a visa consultancy firm. But Rana Mashood Ahmed says he will not resign over “baseless” allegations. “Why should I resign on baseless allegations? This is the third time the same old allegations have been revived,” he said while talking to Dawn on 10 September. “In 2012 when I was deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly I faced these allegations and subsequently, the matter was handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which, after going through a forensic examination of the purported video, cleared me of all the allegations.” In 2012, Asim Malik, the owner of visa consultancy firm Future Concern leaked a video allegedly showing Mr Ahmed negotiating with him about payment of money for party funds. Mr Malik and his wife fled to London despite the fact the Court for allegedly looting hundreds of people with a promise to send them abroad.
Corruption is part and parcel of Democracy so much so that “political scandal” is an established term in everyday vernacular. Corruption is inevitable in Democracy because its very basis is corrupt and against the nature of human-beings. In Democracy Parliament is sovereign, so Democracy grants some men the right to make laws over others giving them the right to decide what is right and wrong, even though their decision making is afflicted by bias, weakness, discrepancy and contradiction. Once men are given such a lofty position over others, their heads will certainly be corrupted by power and so “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” becomes a popular adage in the era of Democracy.
In Islam, the absolute power to decide what is right and wrong is reserved for Allah سبحانه وتعالى. He سبحانه وتعالى alone, free from error, Al-Aleem, Al-Hakeem, alone determines the Halaal and Haraam for humanity. The job of the rulers is to implement His commands and prohibitions. The mentality of the ruler changes fundamentally for he is not sovereign and is accountable before Allah سبحانه وتعالى. Moreover, in the Khilafah, the rulers are removed if they rule by other than Islam. On that basis the entire current government would be removed for violating the commands of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, rather than a single minister being chased for financial corruption.
Democracy Itself Secures Wealth for the Corrupt Political Elite
Addressing a press conference at his Bani Gala residence on 14 September, the PTI chief called for an anti-corruption campaign in Punjab where, he claimed, the “biggest-ever robbery is being committed in the name of mega projects by the ruling PML-N”. He said that since so much had been said about the Nandipur power project and there had been criticism of the exorbitant cost of the Islamabad metro bus project, “the PTI demands a third party audit by some company of international repute”. “The moment close associates of Mr Zardari and MQM leaders have been nabbed in corruption cases, the two parties have started crying in the name of democracy, pressurising Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to come to their rescue. The irony for the PML-N government is that if it favours Mr Zardari and MQM against Sindh Rangers it will be targeted as supporters of corruption,” he said.
Imran Khan is calling for cure by the disease itself. Democracy is the cause of the corruption throughout the world, so how can one ever hope for it ending corruption? Democracy always guarantees excessive privileges for the elite in power and gross deprivation for the people. Democracy links authority with sovereignty, so those elected to power, have the right to make law according to their whims and desires. This ensures that the law-makers are able to amass immense wealth for themselves and their associates by manipulating laws in their favor. Wherever Democracy exists, small elites have changed law to ensure their private ownership of the sources of great wealth, whether it is electricity, oil, gas, minerals, large-scale industry and arms manufacture.
As for those who are still smitten by Democracy, they should consider that in America, the global standard-bearer for Democracy and the master of Pakistan’s regime, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few under Democracy is glaringly evident. On 9 January 2014, the New York Times reported that, “The median net worth for lawmakers in the House and Senate was $1,008,767 — up 4.4 percent … according to the analysis, conducted by the non-profit Center for Responsive Politics, which examines the influence of money on politics in Washington.” And on 4 December 2013, the US President lamented, “And the result is an economy that’s become profoundly unequal, and families that are more insecure… Since 1979…our productivity is up by more than 90 percent, but the income of the typical family has increased by less than eight percent. Since 1979, our economy has more than doubled in size, but most of that growth has flowed to a fortunate few… The top 10 percent no longer takes in one-third of our income — it now takes half.” It is not surprising that in the US the majority are dissatisfied with their system. The Dawn reported on 26 August 2014, “Three in four Americans are dissatisfied with the way the political system works, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. More than eight in 10 say they trust the government to do the right thing only some of the time, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.” So if this is the state of Democracy in its homeland and leading advocate, what can Pakistan expect from Democracy, even if it continued for another seven decades, without interruption?
Disunity Over Eid is Because of the Absence of the Khilafah
Controversy over celebrating Eid on the same day reared its head again on 14 September when the official national committee and an unofficial one in a province put their stamps for separate dates for the festival. The Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee announced that Eidul Azha would be celebrated across the country on Sept 25 (Friday). The non-official committee in Peshawar, said that Eid in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be celebrated on Sept 24. The announcement was made after a meeting in the Qasim Ali Khan Mosque under the chairmanship of Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai.
Disunity on the sighting of the moon is but one of many problems that face the Muslims due to the absence of the Khilafah state, which looks after the affairs of Muslims by the rule of Islam, and unifies them under the flag of La ilaha Il Allah Muhammad dur Rasulullah. So Muslims have to adhere to al Hukm Sharia’ in their fasting, in their breaking of the fast and all their actions, even if their rulers did not adhere to it. For there is no obedience to creation in disobedience to the creator.
The sighting of the moon of Dhul Hijjah by a Muslim is accepted for all Muslims, with no difference between a country or another, or one province or another, or between a Muslim or another, because any Muslim who saw the moon is proof for any who did not see it. The witnessing by a Muslim in any country or province is not more deserving than the witnessing by a Muslim in any another country or province. There is no value of the divisions and borders which the Kuffar established in the Muslims’ lands, which made it so that the Muslims of Dar’a in Syria make Eid whilst the Muslims of Lahore in Pakistan do not, although there is nothing between the our countries except imaginary borders drawn by the Kuffar since the Khilafah was demolished, and the rulers endeavour that these borders remain. And now the situation is that the rulers seek further division by pitting one province against others.
Today, the media means are available to all the states to convey the news of the moon sighting to the whole world in a few seconds. However, until the Muslims restore their Khilafah, they will continue to suffer from disunity.
Rather than Liberating Masjid Al-Aqsa, General Raheel Shares Pakistan’s Military Secrets with the British Colonialists Who Ensured the Occupation of Palestine
At the end of General Raheel Sharif’s scheduled official visit to British forces in September 2015, the General of the world’s largest Muslim army on 1 October is scheduled to address the Royal United Services Institute for a “Pakistan Security Conference 2015,” in the company General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of General Staff, British Army. The conference will reveal details of Pakistan’s military and security capabilities to enhance the British colonialist insight into the affairs of Pakistan, even though the British have consistently meddled in the affairs of Muslim Lands, creating havoc for centuries. It is the British that occupied the Indian Subcontinent and then worked with collaborators within the Arabs and Turks to abolish the Khilafah in 1924, as well as ensuring the brutal occupation of Masjid al-Aqsa and Palestine by the Jewish entity in accordance with the notorious Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917. Today, the British government is actively engaged in mischief throughout the Muslim World, including Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, yet the General chooses to confide in a government that is actively belligerent to Islam.
Like the traitorous Musharraf and Kayani before him, General Raheel Sharif pays no heed to the commands of Allah سبحانه وتعالى that prevent open treachery. Islam orders treating the enemy as an enemy, rather than as an ally to confide in. Allah سبحانه وتعالى said,
إِنَّمَا يَنْهَاكُمْ اللَّهُ عَنْ الَّذِينَ قَاتَلُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَأَخْرَجُوكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِكُمْ وَظَاهَرُوا عَلَى إِخْرَاجِكُمْ أَنْ تَوَلَّوْهُمْ وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمْ الظَّالِمُونَ
“Allah forbids your alliance with those who fight you because of your Deen, and drive you from your homelands, or aid others to do so: and as for those who turn to them in alliance, they are truly oppressors.”
(Surah al-Mumtahina 60:9)
Yet, instead fighting those who have occupied our lands and assisted others in doing so, the General embraces them in confidence and lays bare the secrets of our military and security capabilities. It is high time that the sincere officers within Pakistan armed forces uproot the traitors in the military leadership and grant the Nussrah to Hizb ut-Tahrir so that the world’s seventh largest armed forces can be led by a Rightly Guided Khaleefah in battle against the belligerent nations that are severest in enmity against the Ummah.